Epilogue
“I’m sorry, Detective, but we can’t waste any more time or resources on this.” Dover heard the words her captain was saying, she just didn’t believe them. “We’re turning the files over to the feds and letting them run with it. I’m sure SAC Tanaka will contact you if he has any questions.”
The captain turned back to his reports. She would have argued with him, but it wouldn’t do any good. Once the boss made up his mind, there was no persuading him otherwise.
“What did he say?” Danny asked when she walked back into their office.
“No dice.”
“I really am sorry,” Dex added. He was perched on the edge of Danny’s desk. “This wasn’t my call.”
“We know,” Danny answered. “It’s how things work. The bastard has been running for two weeks now. The chances of him even being in the country still are slim. We’ve got other things to move on to.”
“Do we?” she wanted to scream. What was more important than finding a killer?
Her brother, Bailey, and Ethan were still in hiding.
Though they had moved on to Minnesota with Thayer to meet more family.
She was a little jealous of that. Knox had given up and returned home as well.
He had to get ready for the new school year.
Everyone went on with their lives like nothing had happened—except her anyway. Even Dex was putting together a team to continue the job. In his world, it was just another workday. She was the only one left hanging with nothing to show for her hard work. There had to be something she could do.
“You should think about taking some time off,” Danny said. “When was the last time you got any sleep?” The bags under her eyes must be more pronounced than she thought.
“I don’t know. Months? Years?”
“That’s what I’m saying. You’ll burn out early if you don’t take some downtime occasionally. Go join your brother on vacation. I can hold down the fort here.”
“I don’t know. I’ll think about it.” She signed some paperwork that Dex handed her. This would be one of the smoothest transitions of a case ever. It still rankled her though. “I’ll head over to the medical examiner’s office and let them know to start pulling their files. See you later.”
“Take care. Get some rest.” Danny waved as she walked out the door.
He would make sure Dex had everything he needed.
She just wanted to clear her head for a while.
The morgue seemed as good a place as any.
Besides, she would much rather sit in a room and whine with Sean than Danny.
Not that Danny wasn’t a good guy, but he didn’t hold a candle to Sean in the looks department.
She took her car this time instead of one of the cars in the detective pool.
There was a very good chance she would head home after talking to Sean.
She didn’t want to have to return to police headquarters just for her car.
It would be time for dinner when she was done anyway.
She just wished someone was left in town to eat with.
It looked like it would be a heat-and-serve on the couch again tonight.
Finding parking in a civilian car was always a lot harder than in a city-owned one.
She finally managed to wedge her car along the curb a block from the ME’s office.
It was still hot as Hades outside, but there was already a whisper of fall beginning in the evenings.
Just a whisper though, no verbose yelling.
“Hey, Detective,” Sean said as she walked into the building.
He was leaning over the reception counter visiting with the woman who had worked there as long as Dover had been on the force.
She was smiling widely and twirling her hair as she flirted with him.
All fifty-plus years were working it hard enough for Dover to be impressed.
“Got a minute?” she asked.
“Yeah. I was just going to give you a call.” He motioned for her to join him as he walked to his office.
The receptionist gave her a conspiratorial wink on the way by.
“I was wondering if you have any plans for dinner tonight? Nothing crazy. I just thought we could grab a burger somewhere and talk. I heard the saint killer case is going to the feds.”
“The saint killer?”
“No?” He grinned at her. “I was trying it on for size.”
“Keep working at it.”
“Noted. Anyway,” he continued, ushering her into his office. “What about dinner?”
She had to think for a second about how to answer the question. What she wanted to do was jump up and down clapping her hands. No self-respecting police detective would do that, however. “Why not,” is what she finally settled on without looking too interested.
“Perfect. It’s the start of the weekend, but we should be able to squeeze in somewhere.” His voice drifted off as he started searching for open tables on a phone app.
“I have a better idea,” she said. A brilliant thought had suddenly struck her. “How about a weekend date. You have a bike, right? A mountain bike?”
“Yes?”
“Great. I’ll pick you up at your place in an hour. Pack for the weekend, and we’ll get some biking in somewhere in New Hampshire. What do you think?” She hadn’t biked in years, but it shouldn’t take long to pick it back up. She was still in decent shape.
“Umm. Sure, I guess.”
“Send me your address. I’ll see you in an hour.” Without waiting for him to come up with a reason to back out, she walked out of his office. She would heed Danny’s advice to get some rest.
A little mountain air would do her good, and if she just happened to check out a couple of abandoned cabins for a madman, so much the better. Especially if there had been sightings in the area.
An hour later she was pulling up to one of the many apartment buildings near the university area.
She had wrestled her bike rack onto the top of her SUV and thrown some extra clothes into a bag.
She had even managed to run through the shower.
Sean stood waiting for her with his bike and a large backpack.
“I honestly didn’t know if you were serious or not,” he said.
“I figured if you didn’t show in half an hour, I would just go back inside.
Chalk it up to some twisted prank to get out of dinner.
” He picked his bike up like it weighed nothing and slid it into the rack.
“I’ve heard there are a couple of good trails in the White Mountains, but I’ve never ridden them myself. There’s just never enough time.”
“We can grab something to eat outside of the city. I made room reservations at a place my brother and I have stayed at in the past. It’s nothing fancy, but it does the job.” She climbed back into the driver’s seat. He stored his pack in the back and climbed in next to her.
“This is going to be great. I can’t believe I’m finally getting away for the weekend. Thanks for asking. I can’t wait to see what we do,” he added with a grin.
“Me too,” she answered, glad she had remembered to pack her ankle holster.
Sean wasn’t sure how the weekend, which had been full of promise, had turned out the way it had.
He had finally gotten up the nerve to ask Dover on a date.
It had been her idea to make it an entire weekend, though he didn’t hate the idea.
Who wouldn’t want to spend two days with a gorgeous woman in the mountain air.
This wasn’t what he had in mind when he agreed, though.
It had started out okay. They found a small diner that sold hamburgers and hand-cut fries somewhere between Boston and the New Hampshire border.
He’d watched as she slowly relaxed in his company.
It was a heady feeling knowing he could have that effect on her.
She was right about the hotel. It wasn’t going to win any awards, but the bed was soft, and the water was hot. They started out the next morning on a ten-mile easy trail just to get back into the mountain biking groove.
They moved on to a harder one before lunch. Then they transitioned to a remote trail that went deep into the woods later that afternoon. Where they had passed several bikers on the other trails, no one was on this one.
By nightfall, they found themselves at the very back of the trail near an old abandoned cabin. Dover stepped off her bike half a mile from the cabin and watched it for a few minutes. He leaned his bike against a tree. Fishing his water bottle out, he took a long drink.
“Need some?” he asked.
“Shh,” she answered. She was still staring at the cabin. To his amazement, she pulled a pair of high-powered binoculars out of her daypack.
“What are you looking at?” He was quieter this time when he spoke.
“There was a sighting of Edmund Anderson in this area.”
“Are you kidding me? Is this what all this weekend thing was about? Catching the very person you were told to let the FBI handle?” He shoved the bottle back in his pack.
“Shh. I’m just going to take a look.” She eased toward the cabin. He shook his head and followed her. “Get down. I don’t want to alert him that we’re here, just in case he’s in there.”
Sean found himself walking from tree to tree in an awkward squat. He guessed if this got it out of her system, then it wouldn’t hurt.
Slowly, they approached the cabin in a hunch. Several times he found himself shoved onto his stomach in the dirt until she decided they could continue forward.
By the time they made it to the cabin, his once just sweaty biking clothes were covered in dirt. They made a round peeking in windows until she was satisfied no one was inside.
“Damn it!” she exclaimed before kicking in the front door.
“Christ, what are you doing?”
“Memphis thought he was here,” she mumbled. “He was so sure this time.”
“Who’s Memphis? What are you talking about? Did he see Anderson around here?” Sean couldn’t help but peer into the darkening woods around them. There were shadows everywhere. If Edmund Anderson was one of them, he’d never know it. The thought made him nervous.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of. What does that mean? Did he see him or not?” He stood in the doorway as she sifted through the contents of the interior.
As far as he could see, no one had been here in a while.
Perhaps, whoever Memphis was, just thought he saw someone who resembled the killer.
“Probably just a crank or something. You know how unreliable witnesses are.”
“This guy is different.” She finally gave up her search and brushed past him. Pausing on the porch, she began brushing the dirt off her own clothes. She hadn’t elaborated on her statement before she started down the steps.
“What do you mean he’s different? What’s so special about him?
” He watched as she stopped on the top step and turned to face him.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?
I deserve to know what it is you’ve got me up here for.
Was it on false pretenses so you could continue your chase of a serial killer?
I’m all for doing my civic duty, but this might be a bit too—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before she had stepped up to him and pressed her lips to his. Nothing could have taken him more by surprise.
She pulled back and gazed at him as if she was going to confess all of her sins. That could wait. He wrapped a hand around the back of neck. Pulling her back to him, he kissed her again.
This time he wasn’t surprised. There was no ambush involved.
He felt her melt against his chest as his tongue swept across hers.
Somehow, he forgot to be indignant about how he got to this place.
If this was the result, the why didn’t matter.
Neither did the how, or the who, or the when.
Since he met her, this was all he had thought about. All he had fantasized about.
Unfortunately, they were human and had to break for air. He wanted to stand on this porch forever doing exactly what he was doing at that moment. Dover had other ideas though. She placed a hand on his chest pressing him back slightly.
“You wanted to know why Memphis was different.”
“I mean, yeah.”
“Memphis is my brother,” she continued.
“Okay. I didn’t know that, but I can’t see why that matters.”
“Because we’re all different in my family.”
“I’m not following.”
“You’d better sit down.” They sat next to each other on the rickety steps. She turned her warm gaze to his. “How good are you at keeping secrets? Because I’ve got a real doozie.”
Thank you for reading Fox and Bailey’s story. Looking for more? Don’t miss out on book six, Dover and Sean’s story, coming soon.
Until then, have you ever wondered how the family got its powers? Find out in Irreversible, free just for signing up for my monthly newsletter. Just don’t expect a happy ending.
Ashur is no ordinary man; he’s a god. The council tasked him with one mission. To save humanity one person at a time. Either that, or he’ll be forgotten for eternity.
Sunny is an ordinary woman. She’s just finished high school and is working to save for college. Life isn’t perfect, and when a beautiful man seems to appear from nowhere with her in his sights, she’s hooked.
It’s he beginning of a legacy that will save mankind from its own destruction. Even if there’s no happily-ever-after for them this time around.